Advertisement

Advertisement

BIG PHYSICS, BIG QUESTIONS –

Bad memories tend to stick around if you sleep on them

DON’T go to bed angry. Now there’s evidence for this proverb: it’s harder to suppress bad memories if you sleep on them.

In a study, 73 male students memorised 26 mugshots, each paired with a disturbing image, such as a mutilated body. The next day they were asked to think about the images associated with half the mugshots, and to actively suppress memories of the images associated with the others. They were then directed to memorise another 26 pairs of mugshots and nasty images. Half an hour later they again thought about half the associated images and actively suppressed memories of the rest.

Finally, they were asked to describe the image associated with each of the 52 mugshots. The idea was to see if trying to suppress a memory works better before or after sleep.

The participants struggled most to remember suppressed images for the mugshots they saw on the second day, suggesting that sleep makes it harder to erase bad memories (Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13375).

Advertisement

This seems to support a previously explored idea of using sleep deprivation to suppress bad memories and prevent conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder.

This article appeared in print under the headline “Sleep makes bad memories stick”